The tragedy of the storm was not that it had knocked down a few trees, for more would grow, and not that it had killed a few fish, for others would breed, but that it had eaten away a substantial edge of the island, and this was a permanent loss.
-- Narrator ("The River")

Importance: Pentaquod considers making the island later known as Devon Island his home but decides against it when he notices the way the storms erode the land. Through the course of the novel, the island continues to shrink because of erosion. After a hurricane near the conclusion of the novel, the island is completely washed away.

He would not see it again, and he knew this, for with the arrival of the Great Canoe not only would his paradise be lost, but that of all the Choptanks.
-- Narrator ("The River")

Importance: Even though Pentaquod has no experience with White men, he has the foreboding feeling...